Airtel Payments Bank goes live in 29 States

New Delhi, January 12: Promoters of Airtel Payments Bank, which has gone national today, have committed themselves to an initial investment of Rs. 3,000 crore in the venture, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said on Thursday. While Bharti Airtel has 80 per cent stake, Kotak Mahindra Bank has 20 per cent stake in Airtel Payments Bank. "We as promoters are looking to invest Rs. 3,000 crore to fund costs associated with the Payments Bank. So far, we have invested Rs. 1,000 crore to fund people, IT, training costs", Mittal told a press conference at an event to announce the national rollout of Airtel Payments Bank, the country's first Payments Bank. The nationwide launch of Airtel Payments Bank was done at the hands of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the capital on Thursday. On April 11 last year, Airtel Payments Bank had become the first entity in India to receive a payments bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India. It had started its pilot in Rajasthan across 10,000 retail outlets on November 23 last year and later rolled out pilot services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Speaking at the launch event here on Thursday, Sunil Mittal said that the aim would be to convert at least 100 million of Airtel's 270 million customers into Airtel Payments Bank customers. Shahshi Arora, Managing Director & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank, said that the existing Airtel wallet has been integrated into the payments bank. With this national rollout, Airtel Payments Bank has a network of 2,50,000 banking points, (Airtel retail stores) across 29 Stat3es from day one. This is more than the total number of ATMs in the country. Arora also said that steps would be taken to develop a nation-wide digital payments ecosystem with over five million merchants. Already over one million merchants have been onboarded, he added.

Reliance joins hands with SBI for Payments Bank Licence

Mumbai, February 2: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Monday said it has applied for a Payments Bank licence, where the company will be the promoter and State Bank of India will be its joint venture partner with an equity investment of up to 30%.

Reliance in its statement said that the partnership is in accordance with the guidelines for Payments Bank issued by RBI and subject to grant of licence by the central bank.

“The partnership brings together the combined strengths of two of India’s Fortune-500 corporations committed to making a transformative impact on India’s financial inclusion landscape,” the Reliance statement said.

The Payments Bank will leverage SBI’s nationwide distribution network and risk management capabilities along with the substantial investments made by Reliance Industries in its retail and telecom businesses.

The joint venture will use state-of-the-art technology, build scalable infrastructure and create extensive branch and business correspondent network in order to provide last-mile access and intuitive user experience to all sections of society.

Both the partners see formation of the Payments Bank as an opportunity to lead and co-create an eco-system for accessible and affordable banking solutions. The statement also said that the proposed payments bank will digitise payments and act as a catalyst towards a cashless society.